


Above the Wonderland

by TheMS_Under_Over



Series: Wondrous, Peculiar, and all around Morbid [3]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Genre: Experimental Style, FD is sorta there and sorta not??, How Do I Tag, I Tried, I hope I'm tagging right, In general link needs a hug, Legend of Zelda References, No beta we die like a Hyrule warrior, Time (Linked Universe) Needs a Hug, i think???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-18 10:27:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28865520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMS_Under_Over/pseuds/TheMS_Under_Over
Summary: When the journey starts, hefalls.Once into a deep slumber to be awoken to ruin, and once to a terrible land on loop. (And perhaps, once, very long ago, to a layer of fluffy clouds, clutching a sailcloth tightly in his hand.)But it really doesn’t matter what the circumstances are, as he’s off to fix it, as it's his duty.~~~
Series: Wondrous, Peculiar, and all around Morbid [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2009479
Comments: 3
Kudos: 8





	Above the Wonderland

**Author's Note:**

> Howdy, I hope you're all having a lovely night! This fic's been in the works for over a month or two, and I'm glad to say I've finally finished it. I've only actually played to Windfall in MM, so I'm sorry if there are mistakes in the plot or side quests. This fic has tons of references like the others, so feel free to tell me which you find! The only part without any is to the end, and you'll know when you get there. I thought it wouldn't be right to add in other heroes to that part, as it's something only the Hero of Time sees, and to me that moment is beautiful. Anywho, I hope you enjoy the fic! Without further or do, I proudly present:
> 
> Above Wonderland

When the journey starts, he f 

a

l

l

s.

Once into a deep slumber to be awoken to ruin, and once to a terrible land on loop. (And perhaps, once, very long ago, to a layer of fluffy clouds, clutching a sailcloth tightly in his hand.)

But it really doesn’t matter what the circumstances are, as he’s off to fix it, as it's his duty. 

~~~

The imp reminds him of panpipes and getting lost in the woods, and he hears soft notes dance on the wind around it. A shrill note on a violin plays,  _ an E string,  _ he thinks, and two fairies appear from behind the imp. They’re purple and yellow, and he flinches hard. He blinks fast, the two spinning and blinking, flying through the air, and after about seven blinks he sees a singular fairy, a blue one, where the two were. But then he blinks again and she is gone, and the two are mocking him as the imp laughs, and he has to rub at his eyes to get rid of the tears.

Skullkid, he learns, has a fancy new mask. It’s been painted with vivid colors, and it has the most haunting eyes he’s ever seen (and he’s seen a lot.) He feels  _ quite _ a bit hurt, as Skullkid did seem to like the mask he gave him. It had piercing eyes too, or at least a place for them. But he isn’t given time to reminisce, as the imp tells him Epona is dead, and then he does something to him. 

_ When he wakes up, he heads to a town with a large tower. A clock tower, and it’s a very nice one at that, as it looks like you’d be able to see the moon up close on a clear night. He thinks he’d like that, as it sounds peaceful.  _

_ ~~~ _

When he first arrives in Clocktown, he wears a face that is not his. Bright leaves sprout from behind his ears, and when he rubs at his eyes his skin feels rough and hard. He can’t blink, so his eyes are wide open and dry, even though he feels like crying an ocean. At first, he had panicked,  _ had he gone back to sleep? How many years had passed?  _ And then he remembered, or rather, only he remembered, as the rest had forgotten. 

And as he looks at his body in a puddle, he thinks,  _ This will be alright.  _

But then there is a man in the clock tower, and he’s not an  _ old man _ , but he’s a man nonetheless, and he causes his body to fall off of him, and he’s a boy once more. And the not-old-man gives him a task and he is on an adventure again, searching for an ancient mask or demon, whichever it is he isn’t sure.  _ And he’s not sure he wants to know. _

~~~~

A few hours later ( _ or is it days? _ ), He’s at Romani ranch, and as he basks in the sunlight, laying in the grass, Cremia tells him flowers are blooming around his shape. When he stands up, there’s a boy shaped outline made of wildflowers where he once lay. He can’t remember that ever happening to him, as he was  _ never  _ a Kokiri, but maybe it was the other body, the rough leafy one.

And as he stands above the outline made of forget-me-nots and dandelions, he thinks,  _ This will be alright.  _

But then he is off again, gone to wake ancient giants and heal souls, and he no longer has time to think about it. It’s strange to him, as he has both too little time and too much, as the world stands precariously on his shoulders, and he mustn’t let it fall, but at the same time he can simply play his ocarina and it will go back, and he will have time again. 

  
  


~~~~

  
  


He moves his head to look to the north, and there's a mountain covered by snow. It seems a bit peculiar to him, as he believes mountains should be lands of fire and might, but he continues on his way anyhow. Tatl, his fairy, (is she truly his? Navi wasn’t, so how could she be?) tells him the mountain is called Snowhead, and that the Gorons live on its many peaks. He doubts Gorons can live in the frigid cold he experiences while climbing the mountain, and absently wonders if there are any snowy ruins nearby. There aren’t, of course, as he doesn’t have to save any sages, but it was worth a thought. 

Still, near Snowhead Temple, a crack in the mountainside glimmers with light magic, pearlescent and bright as it filters over the rough stone. He doesn’t notice it of course, as he is no longer small enough to fit between narrow wedges of stone, and though he has heavy fists, he can’t destroy the mountainside. 

At the races, he peers up at the mountain, blinking harsh sunlight out of his eyes, and he thinks he sees something at the top. It’s most likely not an egg, so he doesn’t worry.

As he passes the Goron elder, who waves to him and tells him to hurry along, he takes a moment to look at his hulking shadow on the snow, and he thinks,  _ This will be alright.  _

  
  


~~~~

  
  


After a few cycles, he finds himself meandering about in Clocktown, and he eventually walks to the inn. There’s a kind lady there, Anju, and her bright hair reminds him of an oracle he never knew. He books a room as a goron and has the best sleep he’s had in years. But when he’s about to leave for Great Bay, kind Anju clutches his hands, and he watches her cry with hazy eyes. She begs him to find a boy in a Keaton mask, and he doesn’t have the heart to say no. 

A few minutes later, he walks through dusty old Ikana Valley, rubbing sand out of his eyes, and something yellow sits by the side of the path. He stares at it blankly and notices it’s a broken Keaton mask, the bright yellow faded to a dull color. He and Tatl look around for a bit but ultimately find nothing before they have to begin their journey again. 

About thirty feet away sits a necklace with a large shimmering pendant, and he picks it up. It should be worth some money, so he’ll sell it at the curiosity shop.

_ A choppy piece of dark purple hair dances on the wind behind him, but he doesn’t notice, too lost in saving a girl from her father and tracking down a Garo. _

_ ~~~ _

  
  


The Zora are a welcome sight for him, and he can’t help but think of Ruto, the stubborn princess, and his fiance. He doesn’t even know what that means, but her father seemed rather upset at her for giving him the stone and calling him that, so he assumes it is something adults do. He vaguely remembers Anju telling him she had one, but he doesn’t ever remember seeing her fiance in town. 

He finds a shell near where poor Lulu sobs, and he puts it to his ear. Inside, waves crash and crash, and crash, and he’s reminded of a small raft drifting into dreams. He takes it with him, as it’s not a horn, but he enjoys the sound it makes anyway. 

He remembers Toto, the manager of the Indi-Gos telling him about their most popular song, and he feels a strange melancholy when he thinks about it. He plays with them once, strumming a deadmans guitar, and doesn’t notice how Lulu gasps when she sees it.

And as he returns to the place where he found the shell, a song rings around his ears and he tries to play it on his guitar (though it’s not  _ truly  _ his), and he thinks he feels more awake after. The song rings in the conch he found, an ever-repeating song of both awakening and destruction, and he thinks,  _ This will be alright. _

  
  


~~~

  
  


He takes a break from fighting for a day, and instead helps the citizens of Clock Town. There are some boys who are a bit younger then he is, but they let him play with them, as he’s handy with a slingshot. They run through the town giggling, causing chaos, tipping stands over and gently teasing each other all day. By the end, his tunic is wet with sweat and he’s gasping for air while smiling. He waves goodbye to his new friends and decides to visit the old woman at the inn. 

He hurries down the creaking steps, excited for a story. Tatl follows along, slightly slower, and the two make it into the old looking room. He sits comfortably on the rug, and she starts, and then there's nothing. 

And he wakes up and it’s day three, and the bells are ringing and the air feels hot and his hair smolders. 

So he finds a solution. The owner of the mystery shop must be a very strange man to sell such a mask to a child, but he does anyway. The mask fits snugly over his face, and he finds he doesn’t feel sleepy at all while wearing it. 

But after wearing it for a few cycles, the days start to slide together and he begins to see children and people in the shadows, so he takes it off. It’s the third day when he does that, and he sees his friends huddled together, whispering quietly, worried and looking at the moon. 

He waves to them before pulling out his ocarina, not even checking to see if any of them wave back. 

_ Still, it hurts the next time he comes to Clock Town, as he waves to them and they look at him like he's a stranger. _

_ ~~~ _

The next loop he spends at Romani Ranch again, and becomes friends with the younger of the two sisters. He’s allowed to sleep over, and she taps his shoulder in the middle of the night and asks if he can keep a secret.

_ I’m scared of Them.  _ She confides in him.  _ They’ve got these glowing eyes, and they always take our cows. I miss the cows sometimes, they’re my friends.  _

Afterwards, she flushes red, and begs him to forget it. He almost does, but the fact she misses her friends reminds him of new lands and people long gone, and so he stays another night. They “gear up” which means he uses his slingshot and she uses rocks, but it’s the best they can do.

The two sit on the fence, waiting for Them throughout the day, and after the sun begins to set he thinks he sees something. He tugs on her sleeve and she moves her head so fast he’s worried she’s hurt herself, but she hasn’t. She practically falls off of the fence, and shakily picks up one of the rocks. 

They move towards her quickly, and she throws it as hard as she can. It hits Them with a dull thud, and they dissolve into the air. They’re both stunned, but scramble to their wits as more descend from the heavens.

Most of them are gone by the time the morning comes, but as he turns around to tell her of their success, all he finds is a lone rock, sitting on the pasture. 

She’s returned two days later, swinging her legs as she sits on a crate, a blank expression on her face. When he taps her shoulder and presses his slingshot into her hands, all she can do is blink and wonder who he is. Cremia rushes him away after a bit, so he spends the rest of that day playing with the chicks and talking with a scary looking man.

~~~

Though Tatl says it wastes time, he enjoys looking through the observatory's large telescope. The old astronomer seems happy enough when he visits, always commenting on how well behaved he is and how smart he seems. Some loops he begs the old man to let him look at star charts and tell him about the constellations. On those nights they both climb a ladder and sit on the roof, just observing the unchanging stars. 

_ He is Orion,  _ the astronomer says, pointing to a cluster of stars where Orion sits.  _ And that is strong taurus. _

It’s on those nights when he feels peace and tranquility, and it's on those nights when the grimacing moon can’t bother him. 

One of those nights, he runs up the observatories staircase and places his many masks on the ground near the telescope, and a stray piece of paper crosses his sight. For a moment it looks like a pirate's treasure map, but then he realizes it's another star chart. Tatl flits around his shoulders, worried as he slowly picks it up, gaze focused on it. A simple drawing of a constellation is etched onto the page, the rough shape of a man and sword glaring up at him. It’s name,  _ The Hero,  _ haunts his thoughts for the rest of the evening, and even through the end of the loop. 

After seeing it, he can’t bear to return to the observatory, as all the stars will show him are adventures that aren’t his, and those are some of the most terrifying things he's ever seen.

Later, much, much later, he looks up to the moon, trying to guess how much time he’ll have, and all he can see are twilit princesses, boys without shadows and loftwings flying. 

~~~

The moon is strange, and the children in it even more so. 

A large grassy plain lays in front of him, practically begging him to lay in it and make shapes out of soft clouds. And so he does. Every so often his golden strands of hair fall into his eyes, and while Tatl chimes at him, telling him to move them, he doesn’t. He merely lays on the strangely neon grass, staring at an equally strange sky. It’s mind boggling, a sky inside of the moon? But isn’t the moon already in the sky? He chalks it up to the same reason a sword can split someone into four. It simply is. 

After a bit one of the children comes to join him, sitting down on the dewy grass. The mask they wear is a stark copy of one of his foes, and he shudders as he remembers it. Still, the child sits on the grass peacefully and in silence, not making a single move to attack him. He reaches out his hand to yank on their sleeve, to ask for attention, and the moment his small fingers make contact with it, reality blurs. It spins and quakes around him, bringing a deafening roar of noise, and as soon as it’s started, it’s done. His pack feels lighter, a single mask missing from it. A young voice reverberates around his mind, bouncing this way and that. " _ Ahhh…”  _ The voice says, sighing softly. _ “ Nice weather...Isn't it?” _

The bag of masks he holds feels heavier all of a sudden, dragging his arm down, his other going up to try and balance. 

_ “Masks...You have...a lot.”  _ He does. He can’t lie about that. 

_ “You, too...Will you be... a mask salesman?”  _ He clutches his tunic tightly, the green fabric faded in his grip. He doesn’t respond to the question, unsure of what to say, or how to answer. 

_ “Then I'll play with you.”  _ The voice decides, suddenly growing harsh and cold.  _ “So...The masks...Give me some! _ "

He wanders around the twisted reality, searching for the voice's owner, turning every left in the peculiar maze. After a few minutes, the maze opens up into a small room with light wallpaper. It looks like Zelda's playroom, which he’s only seen once. In the middle of the blocks and toys sit the same child from the field, unmoving. He selects a mask from his bag and gently places it in the child's hand, folding the other over it. They gasp, still unmoving, and it’s a joyful sound. Then they get up slowly, letting their arms fall limp by their sides. A single hand still clutches the mask,

" _ Your friends…”  _ the soft voice says.  _ “What kind of... people are they?” _

It’s a question he’s not ready for, one he’ll never be ready for, one he’s never been ready for. The child doesn’t wait for a response, and continues. 

_ “ I wonder... Do these people... think of you... as a friend?”  _ They ponder, truly wondering for a moment. All he does is pick his bag of masks up from the floor, a bit lighter this time, and smile. Reality blurs again, faster than before, and he thinks the child is smiling back. 

Blinking his eyes slowly, he’s back in the strange field. Another child sits next to him, wearing a different mask. This one looks more relaxed, holding up their face with a hand. They turn to him first and point to his bag. Without taking his eyes off of them, he brings out masks and presses them into the child's hands. 

" _ Thanks…”  _ They mutter, holding the wooden masks gently. “ _ You...You're a nice person... Aren't you?”  _

He hopes so.

_ “Hide-and-seek...Let's play.”  _ They decide with a nod. He nods too, excited to start the game.

_ “All right...I'll...hide... _ "

He enters the twisted reality again, with less stumbling this time. It doesn’t take as long to find the child, as he now knows what he’s looking for. They sit in the same place as the last one, and so he slips more masks into their hands. 

" _ What makes you happy? I wonder...what makes you happy...does it make...others happy, too? _ " 

He doesn’t know what makes other people happy, but he knows he likes playing his ocarina with Saria and being friends with the bomber boys. He knows what makes him happy is  _ other people  _ being happy, and that’s enough for him.

Reality spins back to the field, and another child sits next to him. He gives them more masks. He searches. He finds them. They take more masks. They ask him another question. 

“ _ The right thing...what is it? I wonder...if you do the right thing...does it make...everybody...happy? _ ”

This one he knows how to respond, and the answer is doing the right thing doesn’t ever make everyone happy. He thinks of Ingo and Malon, how Malon may have been happy, but Ingo wasn’t. Or Ganondorf and Hyrule, the Hyrulians celebrated in joy, but the Gerudo had lost a mighty ruler. And lastly, himself. He constantly tries to do the right thing, but it seems he’s never happy in the end. 

Reality spins once more, and a child sits next to him. He gives all of his masks. He searches. He finds them. They ask an even worse question.

" _ Your true face... What kind of... face is it? _ ” He has no idea. 

_ “I wonder... The face under the mask... Is that... your true face? _ " He thinks to himself, what is his mask? Is it an adult's face, strong and hard, but with a kind smile? Or is it a rosy cheeked child, dimpled and happy? Or maybe, is it neither?

Before he can finish thinking, he’s whisked back to the grassy plain where only a single child sits under a tree. It has the mask (or was it a demon) that the salesman asked for, but they don’t seem malicious at all. 

“Oh.” Their voice isn’t quiet and soft like the other children. In fact, it sounds like his.

“Everyones gone away, haven’t they?”

He nods. 

"You don't have any masks left, do you?” They say. “Well, let's do something else.”

They flex their fingers and stretch their arms. In a moment, they’re standing in front of him. The two children are the exact same height. 

"Let's play good guys against bad guys.” 

“Yes. Let's play that.” He responds, as he’s very good at that game. 

“Are you ready?” They ask with his voice. “You're the bad guy. And when you're bad, you just run.”

_ That's fine, right? _

_ Yeah.  _ He decides.  _ That's alright.  _

Afterall, running is all he does. He ran from his home and Saria, and he ran from the sword once he drew it. He ran after he saw Sheik get thrown from the well, and he ran once he saw what was inside. He ran from his destiny, instead choosing to do menial tasks. Even after facing Ganondorf, he didn’t return home, all he did was run after the past. He laughs, as after this he’ll just start running again.

The child stares in silence, and then reaches behind their back. They pull out a mask and gently press it into his hands, saying nothing. 

_ Oh.  _ He turns the mask over in his hands, examining it. He flipped it over once more, the eyes of the mask boring into his. A copy of his face sat in his small hands, the soft white hair cascading over them. This is his true face, isn’t it? 

“You have to start counting now.” The child reminds him, their masks eyes staring at his face in his hands. 

He nods hesitantly, and slips the mask onto his face. 

_ 1 _

_ 2 _

_ 3 _

_ Ready or not, here I come! _

_ ~~ _

  
  


It begins with the toll of a bell, one that can be heard in the deepest of dungeon, and on the peak of the tower, high above the town. It doesn’t matter where he is, the bell's toll always haunts him, reminding him of what is to come. 

And the music passes him by, as he watches as the people of Clock Town cheer and wave. The festival is beautiful that night, and it will be the last festival in Clocktown for many, many years. He’s smiling, he realizes, and he quickly rummages about in his bag to find something to hide it. He slips the mask on, and it fits him like a glove, but doesn’t force him to grow or to become a mighty warrior. It seems it knows as well, that they are viewing the end. 

The people of Clocktown are gathering under the moon, and he quickly follows the crowd, not wishing to be alone in the end. And as the people around him dance and sing, he can see tears flowing from under their wooden faces, and he finds the salty tears are rolling down his face as well. 

And then it’s just him and the mask, and the people of Clocktown who are crying and smiling at the same time, as the moon rests on his shoulders.  _ This is alright,  _ he thinks.  _ This is alright.  _

**Author's Note:**

> Yay! Thank you for reading!


End file.
